Overview
The Strategic Partner Program (SPP) is an exclusive loyalty program for elite third party advisors who bring Sun Life the most business. The program offers rewards such as dedicated resources, priority services and development tools that are rooted in thought leadership and client experience. It delivers what members value most – enhanced service and competitive distinction. Program benefits are specifically designed to streamline administration, ensure prompt responses, priority coordination and handling, and encourage ongoing professional development.
Loyalty Program Levels
The loyalty program offers three levels of membership – Partner, Select and Premier – each providing a different level of service and benefits based on the overall business they bring to Sun Life Financial
Partner: 50,000 TOTAL FYC
Select: 100,000 TOTAL FYC
Premier: 250,000 TOTAL FYC
*FYC means financial year contribution
Problem
Since the initial branding of the program in 2005, it hadn't seen much change. Therefore it created the following problems:
- The program had lost its sense of awe and exclusivity from a branding perspective.
- Advisors were numb to the old design because its been reused over and over again
- Cliche heavy and provided no real sense of eliteness and prestige
Objectives
- Rebrand the Strategic Partner Program
- The re-brand should provide a sense of exclusivity & eliteness
- The re-brand should wrap the advisors with a sense of accomplishment, high class & appreciation
- Should be coveted by other advisors who aren’t part of the program yet
- Differentiate between qualification levels of advisors without using clichés
Users & Audience
Third party insurance advisors who:
- Are independent business owners
- Cater to high net worth & ultra high net worth clients
- Are high performing individuals
Roles & Responsibilities
Creative Strategy & Design Lead
- Curated mood boards
- Visualized new concepts
- Designed & developed creative strategy
- Pitched new concept to business partners and stakeholders
- Designed creative and mockups
Design toolkit
- Paper & pencil
- Photoshop
- Indesign
- Illustrator
Scope
- Design should be in both English & French languages
- 3 months to complete
- Ensure branding is up to Sun Life Standards
Process
Understanding the request: Emotional Impact
We wanted the rebrand to speak to the audience on an emotional level. We believed If we were able to establish a strong emotional connection with them through the brand, it would provide a sense of belongingness and encourage them to keep wanting to be a part of the program. As such we broke it down into two categories:
- Valued: As an elite advisor, I want to feel valued, and have a sense of belonging to an exclusive and elite program. Out of thousands of advisors, I have been chosen to be part of this.
- Satisfaction: As an advisor, I want to feel the satisfaction of being a true partner with Sun Life and the benefits that come with it.
Exploring ideas & themes
After gaining a solid understanding of the project, problem and business objectives, it was time to brainstorm. Led by our director Dave Noyle, our team gathered together to run through multiple ideas and concepts that we could potentially build on.
Our criteria for choosing the ideas that were produced during the brainstorm are as follows:
- Should provide elite feel and a sense of belonging
- Can be used to differentiate between membership levels
- Unique
The next step was to curate images for each idea. The purpose of this was to give us an idea of the following:
- What our visual language could look like
- How it could look in the real world
- How its being currently used and what ideas we can draw from it
Mood boards: Interlocking
Mood boards: Heraldry
Logo Designs
Pitching the Logo: Understanding the concept.
The concept was simple, straight-forward and easy to understand.
It’s a circular maze that has various levels of complexity based on which entry point you begin from. Although it looks like one complete maze, there are three separate parts to it which do not feed into each other. In order to be able to complete the maze you need to see it from a birds eye view which speaks of vision: the ability to see ahead, to be able to make informed decisions based on anticipated road blocks and access points of success.
It also requires deep strategic thinking and tact to be able to finish it.
Logo Mockups
Brochure
Certificate of excellence
Envelopes
Email Templates
Outcomes
- 80% of advisors felt the new brand make them feel special, valued and elite
- 20% of advisors stopped engaging with the program said they would now be more engaged
- 70% of our sales teams expressed how much positive feedback they are getting from the field
- 50% of advisors said they would want to be a part of an elite branded program like this